Mr BARRESI (3:04 PM) —My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister advise the House on the coverage of Australian workplace agreements? How are Australians faring under these agreements? Has the Prime Minister’s attention been drawn to comments about the future of Australian workplace agreements?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I thank the member for Deakin for his question. I can inform him that, since 1996, some 770,000 Australian workplace agreements have been signed. I can inform him that people who have Australian workplace agreements are on average 13 per cent better off than people on equivalent collective agreements. For the managerial sector, the figure is 19 per cent and for the non-managerial sector the figure is five per cent, making an average of 13 per cent. It is interesting to note what the Leader of the Opposition had to say yesterday when being interviewed by Laurie Oakes—and this is relevant to the debate in the Australian community about whether people will be worse off under the workplace relations reforms of the government. He said:

He went on to say in answer to the next question that, by the time of the next election, there would be almost one million Australians under AWAs. The Leader of the Opposition says he does not like AWAs. The Leader of the Opposition says that he is going to strangle AWAs, but what he is going to do is strangle the extra conditions and remuneration that Australians receive under AWAs. Far from the government being the opponent of higher living standards, it is the Leader of the Opposition who wants to cut the wages of a million Australians. He is the person who is attacking the living standards of average Australians.